


Not a Murderer

by Nemithrag



Category: Death Note
Genre: Alternate Universe, Depression, Detectives, F/M, M/M, Murder, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Serial Killers, XReader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2018-08-12 22:29:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7951639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemithrag/pseuds/Nemithrag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last couple of years hadn't been easy on you and the appearance  of an unusual detective certainly didn't make things any easier. The reason he was interested in you hadn't made for a very appealing reason to stick around and being under suspicion for murder didn't make having to live under the same roof easier (note: reader gender is unidentified).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sleep

**_August, 2015_ **

‘(Y/N)?’ Ryuzaki said, sounding worried as he tried to .. wake you?

Apparently, you had fallen asleep on the couch in headquarters. Your brain was still processing the dream you were having while you turned around and almost bumped into Ryuzaki, who had made a habit out of moving closer to people when he wanted them to hear him, rather than speaking up.

The sudden sight of his face caused you to vault your head back, banging it on the back of the couch. Ouch. You were definitely 100% awake now.

‘I apologize if I startled you, (Y/N),’ the black haired man said, taking a few steps back. ‘You seemed to have fallen asleep on the couch.’

‘I noticed,’ you responded coldly. No matter the circumstances, you were never happy about someone suddenly waking you from a dream.

The expression on Ryuzaki’s face didn’t change as he put a hand on your shoulder, presumably trying his best to comfort you. Unsuccessfully. Not that there was any reason you should be comforted, the fact that you fell asleep once did not mean a full relapse.

‘Relax, I’m fine. This hasn’t happened in ages anyway.’ As you spoke, Ryuzaki’s face appeared to indeed be relaxing. That might just have been for you giving him a reason to take his hand back, though. Which he did.

Without any concern for the way social interaction normally took place, he turned straight to business. ‘Have you finished going through yesterday’s reports?’

‘Hours ago,’ you responded confidently, even though you weren’t sure of the time. ‘But it was nothing the police can’t handle themselves.’

‘Are you quite sure of that? With the triple murders last month, it seems we had overestimated the deductive abilities of the officers handling the case.’

This was really not something you wanted to talk about. The case had been somewhat odd, yes, but nothing for you or Ryuzaki to be wasting your time on. Not that your time was being spent to its full extent at the moment; you were still stuck at the detective’s headquarters. Besides, Ryuzaki’s brilliance (the brilliance he never missed a chance to subtly brag about), may be often employed by the police, but they themselves were also far from incompetent.

‘I am sure. So if there isn’t anything interesting going on, would you mind letting me sleep? I’d like to see how the dream I was having plays out.’ You tried your best not to sound too annoyed, but this was a nearly impossible task for you, as Ryuzaki had pointed out an old mistake of yours within five minutes of your awakening.

‘Naturally. Sorry for the disturbance.’ He walked away, but rather than going back to his laptop to work on whatever it was he was always working on, he seemed to be headed for Watari’s quarters. Whenever something came up that Ryuzaki couldn’t deal with on his own, he consulted Watari. The fact he was going to meet with him now meant that he must have been really worried you were slipping back into old habits.

You wonder if he would have been this worried if he hadn’t thought one of those old habits could be murder.


	2. Random Cake

The next time you woke up you found yourself still on the couch and still uncertain of the time. Trying not to ponder about how long you had actually been asleep, you lifted yourself from the comfortable cushions and started sauntering towards the kitchen to get some water.

When you were already on your way back to the couch (as getting to your bed was more of a bother than you would tolerate at the moment), you noticed a blue light coming from a desk in one of the far corners of the room. More specifically, the light came from a laptop. A figure sat next to it, hunched over, and seemed to be reading what was on the screen.

You may not have been a world-renowned detective, but it was obvious that Ryuzaki had been working in this room to spy on you (keep watch over you?) in search of more "suspicious" behaviour. _You fell asleep **one** time, when was he going to let this go?_

You changed course as a scolding speech started taking form in your mind; something like 'did you know even monkeys have a sense of privacy?' _Wait, do monkeys have that?_ You had no idea, to be honest. Maybe Ryuzaki could tell you, after all, he knew a lot of useless facts about every-

 _Wait, his eyes are closed?_ After slowing your pace, you took the last couple of steps and were close enough to take a good look at last. _Had the great Ryuzaki really fallen asleep while working?_

'Hardly.'

 _Eeck, you asked that out loud?_ Your mind seemed to have passed the scare onto your feet, seeing as they stumbled over each other, making you fall to the floor. Of course.

Two dark eyes were staring at you.

'This daytime sleeping must be throwing you off your balance.'

'You scaring me threw me off my balance,' you replied, still on the floor. 'I thought you were asleep.'

The detective seemed to look a tiny bit surprised when you said that, but did not refrain from answering logically, as always; 'I rarely get in a deep enough sleep to lose awareness of things around me.'

'Oh. Well-' you tried to think of something to say while starting to get up again, but Ryuzaki interrupted you.

'Don't get up.'

'...'

It did not sound like he had any intention of finishing his train of thought out loud. You simply sat on the ground as he walked towards... the kitchen?

'Why not?'

'You sprained your ankle.'

Did you? You looked at your ankles awkwardly. _They look normal_ , you thought, so you tried moving them. _Ouch_. Yes, you did. The right one. Great. Well, at least Ryuzaki was getting an ice pack for you.

He walked back into the room, and handed you-

'...'

a piece of cake. Hesitantly, you accepted it. The detective seemed to have looked over the weird look you were giving him ( _he must be really focused on that cake_ ) and started on his own piece.

_Eh, cake isn't so bad right now. Maybe trying to heal people by giving them food isn't as bad a habit as it seems._

Approximately fifteen minutes went by while the two of you ate your cake. Afterwards, Ryuzaki prepared to help you off the floor and to the couch, but you refused.

'I'll be fine.'

This whole thing had been embarrassing enough (even though random cake had definitely helped your general mood); you'd figure out a way to get back on your own.


	3. A Ringing Doorbell

_That had unquestionably been a very bad idea; your ankle hurt like hell._

For the third time in a row now, you woke up not knowing the time. At least this time the sun greeted you, so you knew it was morning and you should probably get up, but the pain in your ankle persuaded you to stay on the couch a bit longer.

Despite the work on cases and Ryuzaki suspecting you of murder (and who knows what else), you had really started to love living in the headquarters. It was rather fancy for an office, after all, and seeing as Ryuzaki wanted to keep his true identity a secret (even you didn't know his real name and you seriously doubted Matsuda did), almost no people came to see him or his team in person so it was usually pretty harmonious.

Currently the only people living here were Ryuzaki, Watari, Matsuda, who seemed to be physically incapable of moving out and you. No one really minded Matsuda though, he was a pretty sweet guy and it was nice having some company (that wasn't trying to solve the case that is you). Besides, he made amazing waffles.

You thought back to when you first came to live here.

 

**_Four months ago, April 2015_ **

That morning, you woke up with a dreadful feeling, probably the worst you had ever had and would ever have, but you woke up nonetheless. The weight of whatever would happen next was the heavy thing keeping you in bed, even though you had slept for over twelve hours that night and morning.

For the moment, all you really wanted to do was sleep. So you did. Several hours passed by before the sound of birds walking on the roof woke you up and made sure you wouldn't fall asleep again.

Remembering the not-yet-empty fridge downstairs, you dragged yourself out of your bed and wrapped yourself in a couple of blankets before trying desperately to avoid stepping on them on the stairs.

The streets were quiet outside, as was your apartment, but something interrupted the usual afternoon: the doorbell rang. _The doorbell rang?_ It was afternoon on a Wednesday, who on earth could have been ringing your doorbell? Everyone you knew was either at work, or lived no where in the vicinity.

Without knowing what to expect you opened the door and were facing a rather ordinary-looking, somewhat older man. His face looked nice enough, his hair and moustache were white and he wore a suit. Surely this man must have been at the wrong address, you thought, but he somehow seemed to know your face.

'Good afternoon, (Y/N)'

'Uhm. Good afternoon?'

'I have come here to escort you to my employer so you can assist in solving a case.'

At that time, you had no idea what was going on and were pretty sure he had the wrong address. _But he knew your name. Surely this wasn't some sort of mistake._ Who was this man? What if he was some sort of kidnapper? But then why would he think this would make you come with him? And what did he mean with 'case'?

'Could you show me some credentials?'

The man reached into his pocket and got out a business card that mentioned a headquarters, but no agencies or anything of the sort connecting to it. If he was just trying to get you to come with him, why didn't he devise a better strategy?

At this point your oh-so-curious brain forbade you from ignoring this strange occurrence and you made up your mind to go with the man, but in your own car, just to be safe.

He waited patiently in his car while you got into your own and followed him.

Later, you'd get to know the man as Watari.


	4. Housemate Interview

**_The present, August 2015_ **

Things returned to normal after a couple of days. Well – normal is a relative term, of course. In this situation, for you, normal meant going back to sorting case files and walking around aimlessly, looking for something to do.

On this particular day you lay on the couch staring at the ceiling, counting all the tiny cracks, when Matsuda sat down on a chair nearby.

‘Morning, (Y/N),’ he spoke cheerfully as always.

‘Morning Matsuda,’ you said, getting up to sit properly.

‘Aren’t there any new cases today? You look bored.’

‘I finished looking through them already, but none of them stood out.’

‘Ah’

You could tell from Matsuda’s face that this had just been an intro to the conversation; he had that awkward, wavering look on his face, like he was waiting to ask you something but didn’t know if the time was right. Instead he continued making small talk:

‘So, (Y/N), before you came to live here, what did you do for a living? Most of the people that work with Ryuzaki are detectives or part of a police force, but you seem different.’

‘Well...-’ You thought about how to answer. ‘I used to teach English, but then I unexpectedly came across some money. Since then I’ve moved around a lot, never staying in the same place or holding onto the same job for long.’

Matsuda seemed satisfied enough with your answer. Good. After nodding politely he replied with what could very well be the reason he started the conversation in the first place:

'I hope you don’t mind me asking and I hope this doesn’t make me seem naive, but I’ve been wanting to ask you; why did Ryuzaki bring you here?’

That question caught you by surprise. _Had Ryuzaki not told him what was going on? Maybe he didn’t think Matsuda needed to know? Or maybe Ryuzaki didn’t **want** anyone to know. _ The most logical answer suddenly formed in your mind: _maybe he just didn’t want to tell his housemates that they could be living with a murderer._

The image of the first time you entered the building formed in your head, functioning as a flashback to the unusual encounter you had with Ryuzaki back in April.


	5. Tea and Sugar

**_Four months ago, April 2015_ **

The old man that had drove in front of you for almost an hour now, had stopped his car in the outside parking lot of a building that looked like a former supermarket or something of the like. Still in your car, you watched him walk to the big front doors and stop there.

Your gut told you to turn your car around and drive away – to anywhere that wasn't here, but somehow everything also seemed to give off a familiar vibe, so you got out and walked towards the unknown man standing near the unknown building. When he saw you getting out of the car, he had opened one of the doors and had held it open until you passed through it.

Weirdly, the first thing you noticed upon entering the building was an intense smell of sugar, which initially caused you to believe the old man had led you to an abandoned candy factory and might be plotting to kill you. Not that you brought any sort of weapon. Maybe you should have. You were walking down what was probably the main corridor of the building, when the man behind you spoke.

'Please pardon me, (Y/N). I do not believe I have properly introduced myself.'

_Trusting him can't really do any harm at this point, right? Without a weapon, there's not much else you can do anyway._ You turned around. The man was already holding out his hand, so you shook it.

'I work for Ryuzaki, the greatest detective of his generation and the preceding one. My name is Watari, but you knew that already, of course.'

_Did you?_ Watari must have read the confusion off of your face, because he continued:

'Because you saw my business card.'

_Right. Stupid._ You hadn't even looked at the name on his card when he showed it to you at your door. The sole purpose of asking him to show his credentials had been to see who he worked for. And even that, you hadn't figured out. What if he really was some sort of murderer? You just went with him? _Cautiousness should really be more of a priority._

While you were debating most of your life choices and questioning how you had even survived all these years, Watari opened one of the doors in the hallway. You were in the middle of a mental speech to yourself in attempt to gain some perspective on how the world worked, when you saw an interesting figure in the newly opened room.

Well, there was no backing out anyway, so you decided to go into the room. As you approached the figure, it became clear it was a man, sitting in front of a desk with a laptop. When you were about three meters away from the man, he turned around in his chair. The whole scene reminded you of a cliché villain turning around to face the hero, so much so, that you half expected him to be ominously petting a cat.

However, the dramatic touch to it all faded quite quickly when you saw the man had both feet on his chair and leaned his arms over his knees. To top off the ridiculousness of this entire appearance, he seemed to be wearing a necklace made out of _tiny pieces of candy_.

'You must be (Y/N). Nice to meet you. I am Ryuzaki.'

**_This_** _was the detective Watari had told you about?_ You stood silent for a moment. The guy in the chair, who was apparently Ryuzaki, exchanged a look with Watari. A look that seemed worried, but more in a _has this human ceased function_ kind of way. Some part of you thought he looked kind of cute with that look on his face. In response to Ryuzaki, Watari offered you a cup of tea and requested you follow him to the living area.

You accepted the offer and followed Watari to a sofa with a matching table and some chairs and you seated yourself in the sofa. Ryuzaki joined you, sitting on one of the chairs, and not soon after that, Watari came back to hand you a cup of tea and then left again.

You were now alone Ryuzaki, and could get a good look at him. His hair was pitch black and seemed without a particular style. It just kind of _was._ His clothes were pretty plain: just a T-shirt and some jeans. Maybe he didn't know there would be a visitor today? Again, he sat in this weird way, which was very unpractical, seeing as he had to stretch his arm out between his knees to reach the sugar on the table and put it in his tea. Somehow, he held his balance, though.

_WAIT, HOW MANY CUBES OF SUGAR?! IS HE TRYING TO POISON HIMSELF?_

'Hey!' you got up from the sofa hastily. You were not about to let a man you just met die in front of you.

Ryuzaki was alarmed by you and fell back in his chair.

You stepped towards him and held out your hand to help him get back into the chair. He took it and went back to his previous sitting position, then turned to you and proclaimed:

'I seem to have missed the cause of your exclamation.'

'...'

You were silent for a second before explaining,

'You.. You put so much sugar in your tea I thought it might kill you.'

Realizing how stupid that sounded, you stared at the floor, waiting for a response, but none came. You looked up and saw Ryuzaki with an oh so slight smile on his face. Then he got serious and asked you if Watari had explained why he had asked for you to be brought here.

Glad about the change of subject, you answered him:

'Not really.. I heard it had something to do with solving a case, but I don't see how I can be of much help with that.'

Ryuzaki took a sip of his tea and you unintentionally held your breath, waiting for him to faint, cease breathing, or choke on it, but nothing happened. Instead, he began his explanation of the things to come.

****

**_The present, August 2015_ **

Apparently you had been absorbed in thought longer than you'd guessed, because Matsuda looked concerned, to say the least.

'(Y/N)? Are you okay?'

'I zoned out for a second, sorry. But I'm fine. What did you ask me again?'

'Why it was that Ryuzaki brought you here.'

'Oh right, I remember. He had asked me to consult on a case.'

Matsuda didn't look satisfied with what you told him. It _was_ pretty vague, after all, but he probably wouldn't keep asking. He was a good guy, so seeing you uncomfortable should persuade him to drop the subject. Still, you were reluctant to wait for him to reply, and thus made your way to your bedroom. It wasn't that late, but there was never a bad time to get some sleep.


	6. Headquarters

**_Four months ago, April 2015_ **

While explaining the ongoing murder case to you in the living room-like (borderline tea party) setting, Ryuzaki had mentioned that you yourself were one of his main suspects. It baffled you how easily he could tell you that, but you did admire his honesty. And, well, it didn’t truly surprise you to find out a detective thought you had something to do with the recent occurrences, because you had been in the neighbourhood of every single one of them. Of course, it was a ridiculous notion; to think that you, having no real weapon skills, nor the motive to commit murder, would be anything less than innocent, but you did know a good detective couldn’t simply ignore the possibility.

‘And with that, you now know everything you should know about the ongoing investigation.’ Ryuzaki took the last sip of his tea (you felt your teeth rot just by looking at it), and waited patiently for your answer.

He had been very thorough in his explanation, so you now knew most of the details about the case, which had seen eleven victims already; one almost every month. Without the detective having to tell you, you concluded why the killings hadn’t been in the media yet: no one had seen their connection. To be frank, it surprised you that someone had noticed it at all. Every single one of the victims had died of a poison, but not all of them of the same one; some of them died of a heart attack inducing poison, making it look like they died of natural (or at least common) causes. At home, you had kept a log describing all of them, _which should not remain in that desk drawer._ Even though you didn’t do anything wrong, you’d have to be extra careful now that you knew you were a suspect. One thing didn’t add up, though:

‘But why would you tell me all of this if you suspect me of being the culprit?’

Ryuzaki changed his position in his chair. He now sat relatively normal: his feet on the ground, his back still a bit hunched over. You never quite found out why he did this at that moment – maybe he was trying to come across as more sympathetic?

‘A number of circumstances have changed recently. I’m afraid we can no longer allow you to be unsupervised, meaning you’re going to have to be accommodated here for the foreseeable future.’

‘...’

This brought up a lot of mixed emotions. The first thing you thought to say was:

‘Excuse me?’ in a holding-back-anger tone of voice. _Because who the hell was he to disallow something?_ But on the other hand.. This room was kind of nice? And Ryuzaki was kind of cute? In a weird, dorky way, but still. Could it be the right call to move in? You decided to do the sensible thing and get some more information first.

‘Suppose I do come to live here. Watari mentioned before that I would be helping you with cases, but how would that work? I have little experience in anything besides the quirks of English language, which you seem to have already mastered quite well.’

You let out a little smile. Ryuzaki didn’t vacillate for a second; he remained dead serious.

_It was a joke. A little smile would have been nice._

‘It’s really quite simple. You’ll sort through the cases the police ask me to help with, and on occasion, you’ll help with the important case at hand. That way, if you didn’t commit any crimes, you can prove your innocence, and if you did, I have a bit less paperwork to sort through and you’d definitely be intelligent enough to help solve the things that come by.’

Was that reasonable? You couldn’t really tell. You barely met these people, but it’s not like you had anything to lose; all the close friends you once had had gone away, and your home hadn’t been in the same place as your house for a very long time. _A good night’s sleep should make things clearer_ , you thought.

‘I guess I’ll think about it. For now, I’ll go home. Could I have your contact information, so I can follow up with you tomorrow?’

‘...’

Ryuzaki went back to his normal position, with his bare feet on his chair, and seemed to be picking out the right words. After a brief moment, he said:

‘I do not think you fully understand, (Y/N). The plan has already been set in motion. Arrangements for you to stay here are being made as we speak.’

‘... What kind of arrangements?’

‘Watari has gone to your house and is packing your things for you.’

‘!!!’

‘Meet him at your house, if you like,’ Ryuzaki said, but you were already half out of the room. Murder suspect or not, you had the right to your privacy. How would this man you just met today get inside of your house anyway?

_The log in your desk drawer. Crap._


	7. A New Life

When you neared your house, you saw Watari’s car standing in the driveway. Sprinting inside would look suspicious, so instead you quickened your normal walking pace just enough to feel it made a difference.

The front door was finally within reach. You peered inside through the window while putting your key in the lock, looking for Watari and seeing if some objects had suddenly gone missing. If he had seen the log you kept on all of the victims, proving your innocence to Ryuzaki had already been pretty much eliminated as an option.

Upon getting inside, you noticed the hallway looked pretty much the same. The first thing you did was run upstairs, to the study, which was a relatively large room on the second floor of the house. There wasn’t much in there: a desk, some writing utensils, a bin and a desk chair. Thankfully, Watari wasn’t there.

_Please still be there, please still be there._ Afraid to look, you opened the drawer on the right of your desk and after seeing a small red notebook, you let out a sigh of relief. There was no way Watari would have just left it here if he had seen what was inside it. You guessed you were safe. For now, at least.

Watari’s footsteps sounded on the stairs, so you put the tiny notebook in your pocket. He must have heard you barging in; you hadn’t exactly been subtle.

‘Oh, hello (Y/N). I trust Ryuzaki has explained the situation to you adequately?’

‘I guess so.’ _Although chance to think about all this would have been nice._

‘I have a list of things I am supposed to bring back to your room in headquarters. Tell me if there’s anything you would like to add.’

Watari handed you a piece of paper and you skimmed through the contents. Clothes, a toothbrush, some reading material, nothing that shouldn’t be on that list. The thought of a stranger packing for you was a bit worrisome, but hey, less work for you.

‘Could you please add my laptop to that list? I use it for a lot of things.’

Watari had started to say something in return, but you were already fully absorbed in thought:

This should settle it. Apparently you were moving. Again. Somehow, you were getting pretty exited about moving into the _(house? supermarket? office?)_ headquarters. Finally, you would have a change of pace. No more moving and running every month. You’d help solve crimes and maybe you could even start teaching again.

Later on the same day, you started moving into HQ. Watari had already put your bags on the bed in your bedroom so you could get yourself settled. It seemed Ryuzaki at least made sure that his suspect would be comfortable, since your room wasn’t bad at all. You had a bed, a nightstand, a rug, enough drawers to fit your possessions, and most other things people would want in a bedroom. There was even a private bathroom attached to it. Nonetheless, you couldn’t bring yourself to start unpacking right away. Instead, you moved your bags to the floor and fell backwards onto your bed.

The ceiling was empty: just a white void of nothingness staring at you. In your spare time, you decided, you would have to decorate it somehow. Maybe you could start drawing again? The memory of having enjoyed drawing in the past vaguely existed in your mind. Some colour would certainly brighten up the room and might make you feel more at home.

In your head, you visualised what the ceiling would look like if you really did get to drawing. At first, there would only be a single piece of paper with a fraction of a landscape; some trees, maybe a mountain in the distance. Then you’d just keep adding to the sides of the image to make it bigger and livelier. This would also mean you’d have something to think about when going to sleep, which was a definite requirement for you to fall sleep at night.

Your thoughts were interrupted by the sound of knocking on your door, and then the creaking of door hinges.

‘It’s impolite to come in without my consent, you know?’ you said to who you thought must have been Ryuzaki or Watari, but when you rolled over onto your side, you saw a figure you hadn’t seen before.

You sat up straight to try to take in the person about to enter your room. It was a man, not especially tall or short, with fairly standard short, black hair. He had a welcoming smile on his face, but a part of you distrusted him for being so stereotypical.

‘I’m sorry.. I guess I should’ve waited for you to answer, but I wasn’t sure you were already here’ the man replied. He held out his hand to shake yours. ‘I’m Matsuda,’ he said, ‘I live here as well, as part of Ryuzaki’s team’.

You hesitantly shook his hand, after which you felt he was familiar for some reason, so you gave him your name without thinking much about it.

‘I think Watari is cooking dinner downstairs, if you’re hungry.’

At that point, you noticed you were indeed hungry, so you started making your way downstairs, looking back a single time to see Matsuda, you saw him smiling at you, but not preparing to follow you. _He probably ate already,_ you thought, and went down the stairs.


	8. (please don't hate me)

Author's note: I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a year. For those of you that will still see this, thanks for sticking with me. Please don't hate me for not updating for so long?

 

Anyway, I am posting this to say that I'll be updating again in about a month, and plan on continuing this story til the very end. I might make some changes to the first chapters, but that's not certain yet.

 

See ya in a month!


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